Milei opens cases against 45 oil names around the Falklands; SLB, Halliburton and Baker Hughes step back

Argentina's foreign ministry on 5 September opened sanction proceedings against 45 people and companies accused of oil work around the Falkland Islands without Argentine permission. The presidency said the cases rest on Article 2 of Law 26.659. Decree 868/26, published the same day, makes Cancillería the enforcing authority and shortens the procedure. President Javier Milei had announced the turn on national television the night before, saying the winds now favour Argentina's claim.

The official statement did not list the 45 names. La Nación did. The paper's list runs through Britain, the United States, Israel, Canada, the British Virgin Islands, Sweden, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Jersey, Denmark and the Netherlands. It includes Rockhopper Exploration Limited in two corporate forms, named as an illegitimate licence holder, and shareholders such as Noked Capital, Exodus Management Israel, Ion Fund Management, Aedos Advisers in London, Samuel Moody and William Rees Perry.

On Saturday, SLB, the firm formerly called Schlumberger, Halliburton Argentina and Baker Hughes said they are not working the islands and do not plan to bid for services there. SLB tied the statement to Decree 868/26. Halliburton said it is not on the Sea Lion project and works in line with Argentine law. Milei later shared the reports with a line that translates as everything going according to plan.

Britain and Argentina fought for ten weeks in 1982. The islands sit about 600 kilometres east of Argentina's southern tip and remain a British overseas territory. Argentines call them Las Malvinas. Oil prospects around Sea Lion have drawn licence talk in Stanley and protests in Buenos Aires for years. What changed this week is the enforcement tool. A faster Cancillería process against named shareholders is meant to raise the cost of a rig before a well is drilled.

Service companies can leave a basin without killing a project. Operators still need seismic crews, drill ships and insurers. If those firms read Saturday's statements as a rule for the South Atlantic, Sea Lion becomes harder to staff. If they treat the statements as Argentina-only compliance letters, work can continue under British licences with contractors booked elsewhere. The 45 files will show which reading the government intends to force.

Milei's phrase about winds is a political claim. The legal claim is older than his presidency. The new piece is the list and the decree. Investors on that list now have a choice between a London licence and an Argentine file. SLB, Halliburton and Baker Hughes have already chosen, in public, not to be the contractors in the middle.